ATHEIST: 'Unquestionable Presence: Live At Wacken' Details Revealed

June 24, 2009

Reactivated seminal technical metal pioneers ATHEIST will release a live album, entitled "Unquestionable Presence: Live At Wacken", on July 21 via Relapse Records. The set, which was mixed by Matt Washburn at LedBelly Sound Studio in Canton, Georgia, features the band's complete performance at the 2006 edition of the Wacken Open Air festival in Wacken, Germany along with a bonus disc featuring "essential ATHEIST tracks" hand-picked by the group. Also included is a 24-page booklet with extensive liner notes and photos.

ATHEIST vocalist Kelly Shaefer previously stated about the "Live At Wacken" release, "It's a very stripped-down, no-overdubs live recording from our appearance at Wacken Open Air in 2006 as part of the reunion dates we did. This was only the fourth show on what would become many. So why record the fourth show? Well, we did not actually ever intend on it, but we found out that Wacken had raw tracks that could be remixed, whereas most recordings we get are from soundboards, and you cannot turn up guitars, vocals etc on those type of recordings. So... we obtained the raw tracks and have mixed eight tunes with Matt (MASTODON, GNOSTIC) at LedBelly studios in Atlanta. The results? A very very live (mistakes and all) and raw set of tracks from the 'Piece of Time' and 'Unquestionable Presence' era of ATHEIST. It sounds suprisingly warm, and for those who were there in Germany that afternoon to see ATHEIST on what was probably one of the more 'magical' performances we have ever had as a band, it was really the first time we had played for people who had been around back in the early days of the band, and were now writers, or owned record companies, plus all of the new fans of this strange technical metal genre of music... This will encapsulate that experience for us, you and as well as those who were not there that day... It was a great day!

"Unquestionable Presence: Live At Wacken" track listing (first disc only):

01. Mother Man
02. Unquestionable Presence
03. Your Life's Retribution
04. Enthralled in Essence
05. Incarnation's Dream
06. Formative Years
07. Brains
08. And The Psychic Saw

Professionally filmed video footage of ATHEIST's performance at the 2006 edition of the Wacken Open Air festival in Wacken, Germany can be viewed below.

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